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- Muslims fill the streets to pray outside on the morning of Eid Al Adha in Shubra, a district of Egypt. In the butcher shops of each neighborhood sheep and cows are killed as a sacrifice and portions are donated to the poor.
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- Mohamad Hagag and his son Abdelrahman, 7, celebrate the morning of Eid Al-Adha by praying with hundreds of others outside a mosque in Shubra, a district of Egypt. In the butcher shops of each neighborhood sheep and cows are killed as a sacrifice and portions are donated to the poor.
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- Muslims fill the streets to pray and then return home to visit family and friends on Eid Al Adha in Shubra, a district of Egypt. In the butcher shops of each neighborhood sheep and cows are killed as a sacrifice and portions are donated to the poor.
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- Muslims fill the streets to pray and then return home to visit family and friends on Eid Al Adha in Shubra, a district of Egypt. In the butcher shops of each neighborhood sheep and cows are killed as a sacrifice and portions are donated to the poor.
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- A small back alley of Shubra is filled with onlookers as a cow is killed with a sharp kife. Butcher shops wait until after the morning prayer of Eid Al-Adha to kill animals bought as sacrifices, the meat is portioned out for the days celebration and donated to the poor.
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- A small back alley of Shubra is filled with onlookers as a cow is killed with a sharp kife. Butcher shops wait until after the morning prayer of Eid Al-Adha to kill animals bought as sacrifices, the meat is portioned out for the days celebration and donated to the poor.
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- A father dips his 2 year old daughter’s feet in the blood of a sacrificed cow. Butcher shops wait until after the morning prayer of Eid Al-Adha to kill animals bought as sacrifices, the meat is portioned out for the days celebration and donated to the poor.
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- Hisham watches from the door of his butcher shop as a cow bleeds out before cutting off its hide. Muslims fill the streets to pray and then return home to visit family and friends on Eid Al Adha in Shubra, a district of Egypt. In the butcher shops of each neighborhood sheep and cows are killed as a sacrifice and portions are donated to the poor.
I didn’t sleep last night, partially because of backlog of work, and partially because I could hear people in the streets in the wee hours. When I left my downtown apartment at 4:30AM groups of young men were roaming the streets, horsing around and breaking out in cheers and songs.
At 6AM I hopped on the metro to the Cairo suburb of Shubra, a working class neighborhood of small alleyways and factories. Outside the large mosques were lines and lines of people praying as the sun crested the buildings. After prayer I went back down the alleyways passing butcher shops full of spectators and a dwindling number of live animals.
At one, I saw a cow pulled into the middle of the circle, it was tripped with a rope and it’s throat was cut with a sharp knife. A cheer went up at the sacrifice, then the butcher worked quickly cleaning the hide off and slicing the animal open. Eventually the animal is divided up with the best meat going to the poor.